"Don't smile until Christmas." That was the advice passed down through the generations, gifted to every new teacher. Get through the curriculum, keep them in line, don't get attached. It's more important they fear you than like you.

These dinosaurs/maths teachers are becoming a thing of the past, but no one has worked out what shape of teacher supersedes them. We're not just educators, but role models, leaders, and care givers too. The clearly defined lines were in danger of…

Saw a discussion on Twitter about films that are a 3-out-of-5 but, to you, they're unquestionably a 5. Hearts Beat Loud is that. It's not lost on me how formulaic it is, how safe it is, how, well, basic it is, and yet.

It's one thing to critically review a movie. This works; this part, not so much. When tasked to write about something that has transcended the critical, it's not only more difficult, but terrifying too. How can justice…

Disney heroes radiate virtues regarded as aspirational. They're brave, they persevere, they're led by love. They oppose the power-hungry and intolerant, and increasingly these villains look not unlike people we see on the news. Zootopia's central theme dealt with how society's differences, in that case race relations, can be weaponised for political gain. Sound familiar?

In their cartoonish exaggerations they focus on the real horrors of real people. The same goes for The Lego Movie, with its socialist heroes fighting…

Boy meets girl. Boy bullies girl. Boy matures and tries to set things right.

I really hated Ishida. You're supposed to, obviously. He bullies Nishimiya for no reason other than her deafness. He would have bullied her regardless, just because she was new to the class. He is the ringleader and the enabler for his friends to bully her too.

Cut to years later and something has changed. He's distanced himself from who he used to be. Ostracised by his…

Not enough has been made of the new feelings these shared-screen films elicit.

Whenever someone's morning alarm goes off in a film - always the stock iPhone alarm - I think it's time to get out of bed. Searching (and the Unfriended series) is a Pavlovian nightmare, where every bleep and visual notification triggers a need to act, to answer the phone or check my inbox.

It made me realise how my eyes are so used to darting around a…